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Local High Schools Win FIRST Robotics Cybernetically

Sixty-six teams from Southern California, Hawaii, Colombia and Chile
competed in the Los Angeles regional FIRST (For Inspiration and
Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition on March 13
and 14. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California,
sponsored seven teams in this annual engineering and technology contest,
which was held at the Long Beach Convention Center.

Winning teams for the overall regional competition were from Hope
Chapel Academy, Hermosa Beach, California; Atascadero High School and
Beverly Hills High School. Hawthorne High School received the
competition's highest honor, the Regional Chairman's Award.

This year's challenge, "Recycle Rush" was a recycling-themed game
played by two alliances of three robots each. Robots score points by
stacking totes on scoring platforms, capping those stacks with recycling
containers, and properly disposing of pool noodles, representing
litter. In keeping with the recycling theme of the game, all game pieces
used are reusable or recyclable by teams in their home locations or by
FIRST at the end of the season.

Working with adult mentors, students have six weeks to design, build,
program and test their robots to meet the season's engineering
challenge. The teams then participate in one or more of 105 regional and
district events that measure the effectiveness of each robot, the power
of collaboration and the determination of students.

The participants are vying to compete in the FIRST Championship to be
held April 22-25 in St. Louis, Missouri. FIRST is part of NASA's
Robotics Alliance Project, which aims to expand the number of robotics
systems experts available to NASA.

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